Hi Folks! I want to talk a bit about the songs on "Domesticated" and how they came about. It took a long time and a lot of writing time to create the material recorded for this disc. We actually went after the beast three times!!
A few years ago my brother Daniel and I started collaborating and building the adult pop "sound" of the disc which included intimate lyrics with softer drums and piano based arrangements and Daniel singing back up vocals. A few tunes survive in the live show from that first period including our "take" on the David Bowie/Nina Simone classic "Wild As The Wind" and Goffin/King "Brill Building" chestnut "Up On The Roof".
On the first round we had feedback from our resident song person Catharine Saxberg, (who was the sort of de facto executive producer of the disc), that our first material was smart but meandering and not yet focused enough for a strong disc. So, excited to have such top level input we went back to the drawing board and wrote and demo'd up another batch of songs that tried to address the issues of length and form. None of them were actually from the heart but they were all very short and well fashioned. LOL. The demo's in Daniel's Liberty Village Studio during that second period gave us a run at arranging the vocals and instruments and so we found out a lot more about how to support this sound musically.
A third period of focused writing proved the charm. I went after the songs with all the knowledge and smarts we had accumulated over the period of development and gave myself over to talking about what was really happening in my life. Thats always how my best material has come about in the past. I seem to have to relearn the same lesson every recording project though.
I headed north to write sketches in the early mornings in the boathouse of the family cottage during the summer of 09.
The many moods of the lake kept me open and peaceful and I found the harmonies and melodies showing me the way to a batch of happier songs that described the deeper truths of my experience in a much punchier and more direct communication. I wrote early before anybody got up at the cottage and felt those hours as a kind of holy communion with the muse that was feeding me daily inspiration and joy in the foam of these songs.
Moving to a new location seemed important to get another perspective but Toronto proves too busy for me with my coaching business and friends etc. I asked my pal Bill in Montreal to recommend a spot and his pal Patti was finished off the Bed and Art apt above her art gallery. Perfect artist hideaway for writing.
By the time I was polishing off the lyrics there I could feel the simple power of these melodies working all together in a song cycle. Coming home to record simple piano and voice demo's at the Rogue Studio's in Toronto with JP (which has become part of my working process) I slid the finished tunes to my team of Daniel and Cathie with no expectations.
When Cathie said "you nailed it" we knew it was time to start the process of arranging and recording them. -phew- A three round process was finally finished!
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